Mary Royall Wilgis is a Brooklyn-based painter who grew up in the marshes of South Carolina. Hours on the water and in the trees taught her to watch light the way most people listen to music. She calls it “light foraging” — tracking how a window catches sun at a precise hour, translating the passage of time onto color-dense canvases. She’s currently preparing a show with Harsh Collective at the Hamptons Art Fair from July 9 to 12.

What book have you gifted most?

Devotions by Mary Oliver

What's something you bought under $100 that changed your life?

My keychain tape measure. It's AMAZING.

Where do you go to find peace?

Kayaking on the South Carolina marsh with my dad and brother.

Who is your forever inspo?

James Turrell. That man's writing on light changed my life: "Light is not so much something that reveals, as it is itself the revelation."

What's the best investment (money, time, habit) you've made?

Journals. I have used the exact same type of black, lined, Moleskine notebook since college. I have written through heartbreak, coming out, quitting my job, becoming an artist, family dynamics, health problems, and love.

Write us a fortune cookie message.

Be a good neighbor.

Follow Mary on Instagram and Cosmos.